Rural Women Launch Ventures Under PAU's NIDHI-TBI Initiative

By: WE staff | Wednesday, 29 October 2025

• Vasu and Meena Kumari of rural Rajpura are launching their own ventures with assistance from PAU's NIDHI-TBI initiative
• They are being guided and supported by the program to take their concepts to greater heights

In rural Rajpura, Vasu and Meena Kumari are embarking on an entrepreneurial journey with the help of the NIDHI-TBI programme of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU).

Both women have moved from modest beginnings to building their firms within the emerging start-up ecosystem of Punjab.

Meena started making multipurpose cleaning products based on bioenzymes due to demand from consumers for environmentally friendly products.

Her interest intensified following a visit to PAU's Skill Development Centre where she attended a session featuring Dr. Ramandeep Singh, Director of School of Business Studies and Principal Investigator of NIDHI-TBI (DST, GoI), who made a presentation that motivated her to seek alternatives from nature to synthetic cleaners.

With the assistance of the NIDHI-TBI team, Meena enhanced her product design, marketing, and consumer engagement. Dr. Poonam A. Sachdev, Co-PI and Lead Food Technologist, appreciated her focus on sustainability, while Sameer Gautam, Business Manager, offered inputs on packaging and customer engagement.

Pallavi Kalyan, AEO, highlighting increasing participation of women in innovation-driven businesses.

Vasu, Glowmore Skincare's founder, turned a passion for natural beauty products into an enterprise. With the mentorship and support of NIDHI-TBI, she opened an online shop and marketing campaign, growing her customer base and brand recognition.

The program is designed to support entrepreneurs especially women into becoming better entrepreneurs with the necessary mentorship, tools, and networks to grow their businesses, says Gurinder Singh, NIDHI-TBI CEO.

These efforts are part of a larger pattern of rural women entering the entrepreneurial arena with institutional backing. PAU's NIDHI-TBI programme remains an incubator where ideas from all over Punjab are nurtured, sharpened, and scaled.

From Rajpura to Samrala, women entrepreneurs are proving that innovation and entrepreneurship are happening both in urban and rural parts of the state.